It’s nearly Easter!

What does Easter mean to you?

Well despite the foot and a half of snow we had a week ago, you can’t fail to notice that the year is marching on. It will be Easter in less than a month! So I got to thinking what will you be doing this Easter and is it all just chocolate eggs, chocolate eggs and more chocolate eggs. Or if you’re a terribly middle class millennial you may be popping out to Waitrose to buy a chocolate avocado!

Why do we give chocolate eggs?

Ok this has baffled me for years.

I understand that eggs are traditionally forbidden during Lent so if you are a Christian and follow Lent then being allowed to eat eggs again could be a welcome addition to your diet, but why do we give chocolate eggs – surely the lent thing just applies to hen’s eggs.

A bit of research leads me to the Victorians (who else!) who adapted the tradition of painting the holy week eggs (eggs that were laid in the week before Easter) and were given to children as gifts. The Victorians made cardboard eggs filled with sweets and adorned with ribbon –well it was only a hop a skip and jump to creating chocolate eggs, when new chocolate making practices were perfected, filling them with sweets and so creating a new tradition.

The Easter bunny

Talking of hops, skips and jumps – what about the Easter bunny – where in the world did that idea spring from?

Apparently there’s an Anglo Saxon legend that tells of the goddess Eostre who finds a wounded bird and transforms it to a hare so that it could survive winter. In the spring it discovers it could lay eggs which it leaves as an offering for the goddess. It’s a fun bit of folklore if nothing else.

Easter traditions

Rolling eggs down hills

Do you do this? This was a family tradition when we were young. We would meet all our cousins and aunties in Eglinton park. Hard boiled eggs all painted (or coloured with felt tip pen) ready to be rolled down the hill. My husband thought this was hilarious when he first moved to Scotland – it’s not a thing in the south east of England

Do have a lovely easter and if you’re looking or a less fattening, sticky, tooth decaying way of giving a gift this Easter then there’s nothing better than the gift of a portrait which will live forever on your walls but not on your hips!